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©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Reading impairment after neonatal hypoglycemia with parieto-temporo-occipital injury without cortical blindness: A case report
Naoko Kurahashi, Shunsuke Ogaya, Yuki Maki, Norie Nonobe, Sumire Kumai, Yosuke Hosokawa, Chikako Ogawa, Keitaro Yamada, Koichi Maruyama, Kiyokuni Miura, Miho Nakamura
Naoko Kurahashi, Shunsuke Ogaya, Yuki Maki, Norie Nonobe, Sumire Kumai, Yosuke Hosokawa, Chikako Ogawa, Keitaro Yamada, Koichi Maruyama, Kiyokuni Miura, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Central Hospital, Aichi Developmental Disability Center, Kasugai 480-0392, Aichi, Japan
Yuki Maki, Sumire Kumai, Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8560, Aichi, Japan
Norie Nonobe, Division of Neonatology, Center for Maternal-Neonatal Care Nagoya University Hospital, Nagoya 466-8560, Aichi, Japan
Chikako Ogawa, Department of Pediatrics, Tokyo Metropolitan Fuchu Medical Center for the Disabled, Fuchu 183-0042, Tokyo, Japan
Miho Nakamura, Department of Functioning and Disability, Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Developmental Disability Center, Kasugai 480-0392, Aichi, Japan
Miho Nakamura, Okazaki Medical Center for Child Development, Okazaki 444-0011, Aichi, Japan
Author contributions: Kurahashi N contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing-original draft of the manuscript; Kurahashi N Ogaya S, Maki Y, and Nonobe N involved in the resources; Ogaya S, Maki Y, Nonobe N, Kumai S, Hosokawa Y, Ogawa C, Yamada K, Maruyama K, Miura K, and Nakamura M participated in the writing-review and editing; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the JSPS KAKENHI, JP19K14292.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the parents of the participant for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Naoko Kurahashi, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Central Hospital, Aichi Developmental Disability Center, 713-6 Kagiya-cho, Kasugai 480-0392, Aichi, Japan. naokohayashi11@hotmail.com
Received: March 17, 2023
Peer-review started: March 17, 2023
First decision: April 11, 2023
Revised: April 24, 2023
Accepted: April 27, 2023
Article in press: April 27, 2023
Published online: June 6, 2023
BACKGROUND
Perinatal brain injury may lead to later neurodevelopmental disorders, whose outcomes may vary due to neuroplasticity in young children. Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that the left parietotemporal area (which includes the left inferior parietal lobe) is associated with phonological awareness and decoding skills, which are essential skills for reading acquisition in children. However, the literature on the effect of perinatal cerebral injury on the development of phonological awareness or decoding ability in childhood is limited.
CASE SUMMARY
We report the case of an 8-year-old boy who presented with reading difficulty following a perinatal injury in the parieto-temporal-occipital lobes. The patient was born at term and was treated for hypoglycemia and seizures during the neonatal period. Diffusion-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging on postnatal day 4 revealed cortical and subcortical hyperintensities in the parieto-temporo-occipital lobe. At the age of 8 years, physical examination was unremarkable, aside from mild clumsiness. Despite occipital lobe injury, the patient had adequate visual acuity, normal eye movement, and no visual field defects. Full-scale intelligence quotient and verbal comprehension index on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition were 75 and 90, respectively. Further assessment revealed adequate recognition of Japanese Hiragana letters. However, he had significantly slower reading speed in the Hiragana reading test than control children. The phonological awareness test revealed significant errors (standard deviation +2.7) in the mora reversal task.
CONCLUSION
Patients with perinatal brain injuries in the parietotemporal area require attention and may benefit from additional reading instructions.
Core Tip: Limited research on the effect of perinatal cerebral injury on the development of reading ability in childhood is available. Herein, we report the case of an 8-year-old boy presenting with reading difficulty (dyslexia) following perinatal injury in the parieto-temporal-occipital lobes. Despite occipital lobe injury, the patient had adequate visual acuity, normal eye movement, and no visual field defects. His verbal comprehension index on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition and ability to adequately recognize Japanese Hiragana letters were adequate. However, he showed remarkably poor reading fluency and phonological awareness. Careful attention should be paid to patients with perinatal brain injury in the parietotemporal region.
